BAMBOO SHOOTSWorks of fiction and poetry by friends of Bamboo Ridge Press.

There goes the neighbors

"Yessir, that's the way it goes," Dad remarked. "Sooner or later come our turn."

Mom and Dad had just returned from a graveside memorialization for a recently deceased neighbor at the Hawaiian Memorial Park Cemetery. It was a private affair; a somber circle of family and two neighbors gathering to commemorate a man who was a husband, father, grandfather and a good neighbor to us for over forty years. Word of Mr. Masaki's passing spread quickly through the neighborhood. There was no obituary.

"Mr. Hidoi stopped by yesterday," Mom blistered. "He named all the neighbors who died, then snickered saying that your father was next!"

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That was five years ago. Dad turns 86 years old this year. He is planning his last pig hunt on the Big Island this summer and is registered to run in the December Honolulu Marathon. Even he, however, didn't think he'd live past his 57th birthday. That was the age his father was when he succumbed to a hemorrhagic stroke.

My then 58-year-old sister accompanied him on his last hunt. "Yeah, well, had to make exceptions for him last year when he went hunting," she explained. "He had gout so bad he couldn't walk without a cane. I …"

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Between Sky and Sea: A Family’s StruggleISBN: 978-0-910043-93-9Ka Palapala Po‘okela Honorable Mention for Excellence in Literature
Set in contemporary Hawai'i, BETWEEN SKY AND SEA: A FAMILY'S STRUGGLE is an episodic novel that tells the story of three brothers struggling to negotiate their identities in the wake of cultural loss, drug addiction, and family tragedy.
When personal conflict leads Ka'eo Teixeira to question the choices that he has made while exploring his cultural heritage, he abandons those that he cares for in pursuit of his own path forward; a decision that ultimately leaves him guilt stricken and alone, and in the company of a high-school friend and noted meth dealer.
As rumors of Ka'eo's whereabouts begin to surface, Mark, the second oldest, grapples with the responsibilities that he has to his family and the independence that he has been working toward his entire life, with a sudden loss forcing him to accept actions and events that are beyond his control.
Consumed with grief and anxiety over their family’s decay, Elani, the youngest of the three, denies his present and takes on a new identity elsewhere. But when news of his brother’s fate leads him to confront his past, Elani returns to discover his future in the wreckage of a life left behind.
An account of a family’s fight to persevere, BETWEEN SKY AND SEA captures the difficulty of recovering what matters most from the depths of what remains when all that’s left to find is ashes.